Fans are often used to cool electronic devices and thereby prevent such devices from overheating. For example, in data centers, fans play a critical role in ensuring that servers do not overheat. Such fans may include but are not limited to fans that are installed within tower servers and rack servers and used to cool internal components thereof, chassis-mounted fans used to cool blade servers and other electronic components housed within a chassis, rack-mounted fans used to cool servers and other electronic components housed within a rack, and large fans used as part of data center air conditioning and air handling systems.
In many data centers, the fans that are used to cool servers can be removed and replaced by other fans having different characteristics. For example, a chassis-mounted fan that can run at a maximum speed of 5,000 revolutions per minute (RPM) may be removed and replaced by a fan that can run at a maximum speed of 7,000 RPM. This ability to swap out fans enables a party that manages the data center to selectively install a variety of different types of fans (e.g., fans made by different manufacturers, different models of fans made by the same manufacturer, and other fans having different characteristics) depending on a variety of factors including cost and performance. For example, one party may opt to install fans that provide the highest possible performance regardless of the cost. Another party may opt to install fans that provide only the level of performance necessary for adequate server cooling, thereby conserving cost.